Prologue
The air was crisp around her as she sat on the cliff face. She looked out to the horizon before her and knew that this was the last time she’d be able to do this on her own planet. Tomorrow, she belonged to the Illirians. Conscripted into their galactic military to serve a sentence her father was too cowardly to pay himself.
Her father sold their people to the lizards to pay for his life.
Cratia took a heavy sigh. She wasn’t looking forward to leaving for the palace on the other side of the planet, so she just sat and thought about the war.
It was bloody, and lasted for way too many years. Her own mother had lost her life to one of the lizards. If Cratia ever found out which one of them did it, she’d take their head. Her hand twitched at the thought, thirsty for vengeance.
She stared up at the massive full moon, and the two diminutive moons that scattered across the sky and felt her beast inside stirring. She wanted out, and who was she to deny Kerrishia the opportunity since it would be forbidden once they were aboard the ship. Her long tail fluffed out in irritation at the idea that she would be so severely handicapped for so long.
Only on planets to help along the terraforming process. She was to go forward to seed planets that were bought and paid for by people with way too much power, eradicate any semi-intelligent inhabitants and plant the terraforming seed to make it ready for whichever species had bought the planet.
A far cry for a princess from a warring world. Now she was just a lackey.
She sighed once more, then, using the pull of the moon brought Kerrishia forward, her bones snapping, fur covering her body, her inner Ciat taking over, doubling her small stature and cording her strong physique with sheets of muscle. A perfect predator.
Her long fur was soft and dark, nearly the color of her black hair in her small form. A long snout protruded from her face, replacing her nose and mouth, Ears elongating and moving up her skulland the entirety of her eyes became jet.
She grabbed at the hard ground around her with her massive sharp claws and threw herself off of the cliff, dropping down into the valley for a hunt to get the reckless energy out of her system. She knew if she didn’t feed, and didn’t let her beast out, she was more prone to doing something stupid tomorrow, and she needed her wits about her when around all of those reptiles. She knew quite a few of them were dying to get under her skin and to make her do something worth killing her for. She had, afterall, taken out quite a few of their friends and family with her own blades.
She found some small prey in the valley and took it out quickly, filling her gullet with its soft meats and organs before finding some bigger game. She made at least 5 kills and gorged on game before deciding to head back to the place that was supposed to be her home. The man that she once called father was in his office still, though by the looks of it he was passed out, drunk. Typical. She made it up to her chambers, peeled the sweaty, muddy leather from her body and ran herself a hot bath with all of her favorite oils. This would be her last bath before becoming someone’s murder puppet.
She soaked in the tub, inhaling the fragrant and spicy oils that lifted her spirits a little, making her think of her mother, who would run her baths just like this after long training sessions.
She threw her head back against the back of the soaking tub and took a deep breath. If she was lucky, she’d leave out at the first breaking of dawn across the sky, and make it to the Illirian capital city before it became too congested. She wasn’t too keen on wandering around the city alone with a bunch of lizards gawking at her. Cratia took another deep breath and closed her eyes. She’d sit in here a little bit longer before getting out and crashing for the night.
She sighed gently, looking out the window that overlooked the forest from her bathing room, relishing in the quiet of the night. If she were capable of emotions, she might have cried. She certainly felt vindicated in that feeling at this moment. Tomorrow was proof that her father really never did care about her. She was only ever considered a pawn, even though she was his heir to the Ciat throne.
Veheemen never fathered a son, so a rough and tumble daughter would just have to do, even though it wasn’t tradition to pass rule to a daughter. Cratia was the toughest Ciat warrior, in spite of, or maybe even because of her being a woman. She was underestimated often, so the element of surprise often gave her the upper hand, as did the magic that she wielded, magic like her mothers’. So she was often feared to be a demon, even though it was well known that the queen had been a high priestess of the old gods, and had been respected and revered. Cratia definitely couldn’t be that lucky.
It certainly didn’t help that her mother had used her abilities to help, whereas Cratia veil walked during battle like some monster and used her power to decimate the enemy.
An enemy that she was going to be front and center to as a war prize tomorrow. She allowed a single tear to escape, still thinking of her sweet mother, and the day she was taken from this world. Her father had always been an ass, but after her mother left them, he really lost his mind.
Cratia slowly pulled herself from the tub, done soaking and reflecting. “No sense dwelling on things that happened, it’s not going to help me tomorrow, anyway.” She quickly toweled off and put on a loose linen tunic before collapsing in her bed, not looking forward to tomorrow.
